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EAGLE — It’s a classic moment in community firefighting: A cat is stuck in a tree.

Only this time, that tree was a 40-foot utility pole, which means the Greater Eagle Fire Protection District was unable to help.

“They really wanted to go up there and get Beatrice,” said Eagle resident Jean Green, the cat’s owner. “But they said ‘It’s electrical, we can’t go up there.’ So they called Holy Cross for me.’”

Holy Cross Energy told Green the cat would probably come down on her own, and they were right. It just took four days.

Green lives on 50 acres of land in the Salt Creek area of Eagle. The utility pole is on her property, which Beatrice often prowls. But the cat is usually not gone for very long.

‘THERE SHE WAS’

“I heard her meowing, but I couldn’t find her,” Green said on Monday after the ordeal was over. “Finally I looked up and there she was.”

Beatrice is 10 years old, and after her first night atop the pole, Green was beginning to get nervous for the cat’s health.

“I missed her,” she said. “It was cold and rainy and I knew she must have been freezing to death out there.”

Green put bales of hay and cushions underneath the utility pole, fearing the worst for Beatrice.

“I told Holy Cross that I wanted to just sign a release and go up there myself, but they said you needed 60 hours of training,” she said. “I was so relieved when, at 4 a.m., I heard a little tap at the window and there she was. She was just hungry.”